From the [UK] Daily Mail:

British opposition leader David Cameron has risked angering hardline anti-abortion campaigners by saying he will vote to continue to allow abortions at virtually full term when a minor disability is diagnosed in utero. Cameron has a son with a disability.

… Members of Parliament are expected to vote on a proposal to change the rule that allows abortions as late as 39 weeks if the unborn child is diagnosed with a disability. But Mr Cameron said: “I won’t be supporting that. The current law should remain.”

… The issues raised by the legislation are sensitive ones for Mr Cameron because his five-year-old son Ivan was born with a severe form of cerebral palsy and epilepsy and needs 24-hour care.

A full-term pregnancy is approximately 40 weeks.

The story drew many comments, including this one:

Both Cameron and Brown have children with disability and yet both support abortion up to birth for disability. Is this their real position or are they simply trying to curry voters’ favor because they believe that most people in this country see disabled people as an encumbrance?

Given that most babies born at 24 weeks and cared for in good neonatal units will now survive, taking the life of a baby after 24 weeks in the womb just because it is disabled, as Cameron suggests, is tantamount to infanticide. It is also eugenics by stealth.

Surely a just and caring society is where the strong make sacrifices for the weak rather than dispensing with lives which are seen to impose a burden on others? This however seems not to be the type of society that the leaders of our two main parties are advocating.

It would be good to hear more from them about good quality care for disabled or dying babies and better support for parents of disabled children.

- Peter Saunders, St Albans, UK

See earlier post: Opposition leader shows son with cerebral palsy on TV.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, abortion, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, ethics, eugenics, prenatal diagnosis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post